Original Text and Notated Edits

The Barn Swallow got its name because , of all the different swallows, the Barn Swallow it builds its nest almost exclusively on man-made structures. I can attest to this fact as there are families of them that annually build nests on our apartment buildings breezeway sprinklers. There was only one nest this year, but I always still enjoyed watching the chicks grow up and eventually leave the nest strike out on their own. The three chicks babies from this year left last week and, as if this weekend, have stopped returning at night.

I always enjoy hearing interesting animal mythology stories, Animal mythology stories are fascinating to me. it shows I think they show creative problem solving in early cultures. In the case of the Swallow, early people thought claimed that it stole fire from the gods to bring to the human race. This angered the gods, so they hurled a fireball at the Swallow, hitting its tail. This is the explanation for their forked tails. Pretty cool, right? Stories like that fill my head with illustration ideas.

For this drawing painting, I used watercolor paper, graphite pencils, Copic multiliner brush pen and markers, and some generic watercolor/gouache paints. I’m generally pretty uncomfortable with these kinds of paints. During a scientific illustration assignment in college, however, I found they worked really well. Since I was going for that kind of style here, it was a natural decision.

Well, that’s it for now. Let me know what animals you want to see me draw or paint next and I may give it a shot. Thanks a bunch!

Until next time!